Seasonal Disease: Tips for curing cold and flu during weather change

Millions of Americans suffer from cold and flu as the weather switch from summer to winter in most part of America, and from rainy to winter in Asia.

To treat this, many rely on over-the-counter medicines, if you too have this habit, be aware. These OTC medicines contain many active ingredients that might harm your overall health if combined. Readout more what you should do to deal with cold and cough.

Don’t Head To Pharmacy Without Knowing This

The OTC medicines that you consume without prescription actually doesn’t cure a common cold and flu. It just eases the symptoms. Additionally, these medicines do more harm than the benefits because of their composition.

What Are The Safe Medicines For Cold and Cough Remedy?

The OTC medicines you pick from pharmacies have more active ingredients than your body needs. These ingredients obviously have side effects or might interact with other active ingredients of different medicine you are consuming. To protect yourself from side-effects of active ingredients, simple advice is to check the list of active ingredients in an OTC medicine and pick a medicine that focuses to treat your symptoms. Here is a guide from experts, after research.

FOR HEADACHE, SORE THROAT AND MUSCLE PAIN: The pain killer acetaminophen or ibuprofen is good to treat this. If you have a fever, this works on fever as well.

Watery Eyes, Sneezing, and Runny Nose: Antihistamine is effective at this. Experts suggest chlorpheniramine. However, antihistamine also causes drowsiness, so the advice is that take this medicine during the day time.

Common Cough: The medicine ingredient guaifenesin is good for this. It clears cough. The other is dextromethorphan, it is a cough suppressant. Excessive use of dextromethorphan has many side-effects, while guaifenesin is a safe one.

Nasal Congestion: Decongestants like pseudoephedrine and phenylephrine gives temporary relief in the condition, therefore, it is also used in nasal spray. But prolonged use of the same has many side effects. It affects heart functioning, increases blood pressure. Prolong use of nasal spray might lead to rebound congestion.

While marketers of these OTC medicines promote these products with glamours advertisements, these medicines provide only minor relief in symptoms, which even disappears after a day or two without any medication.

Important Points To Note

• American Academy of Paediatrics does not recommend any of the OTC medicines for children below 6 years age
• Acetaminophen is present in many medicines, it should be taken in low doses. So if you are already on medication, caution is you should not do double dosing of it. It is toxic for the liver.
• OTC medicines are not at all safe and free from side effect. Therefore, if you have to take any, don’t consume it without a doctors prescription.
• Don’t hide anything from your doctor about supplements, medicine or any other drug you are consuming.

The Most Effective Treatment For Cold And Flu

The most effective and safe treatment for cold and flu is taking plenty of rest and increase liquid intake. Ayurvedic kadha is also very effective in treating cold and cough.

Vit C shorts also provide good relief from the symptoms. Take this treatment for a day or two and you will be fine without any medication. Personal hygiene during this time is very important to avert the spread of infection. So, maintain social distancing from people, wash your hands, stay away from children.

Disclaimer – The advice is before consuming anything, consult a health practitioner. They are the right person to advise you medicines.